St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-12-17

invests The plan of Woo-ey is as fol-
lows:
All Sing wants to borrow 800 and re-
pay it in installments, so he starts a
Woo-ey; his first step is to find twenty
persons who are willing to take a S.
share in a 800 Woo-ey. All Sing is
known as the Woo-ey Tow, or head Of
the Woo-ey the shareholders are known
as Woo-ey Chi, or children of the Woo-ey.
The Woo-ey lasts for twenty months :;
each Woo-ey Chi pays in S. to the
Woo-ey Tow, so that All Sing obtains his
500. At the end of the month All Sing
goes to each of the shareholders and
asks for bids for the next loan; each mem
Der writes his name and the amount of
interest he is willing to pay on slip Of
paper. Every member has the right of
borrowing money once during the
Woo-ey. After the bids are all received
they are opened and read and the money
lent to the highest bidder. We will sup
pose that two per cent. is the highest bid.
All Sing, who now pays the first Install
ment has to pay in the full amount of So
while the others deduct the two per cent.
and pay in 81 80. When the next INSTALL
ment falls due there are two members who
have to pay in the full amount, and so
the WOO-ey runs on. At the end of tif-
teen or sixteen months the interest
offered is often as high as twenty-five or
thirty per cent, but as fifteen of the
members have borrowed and so have to
paw in the full amount of s., it is only
the four or five left who get the benefit
of the heavy interest. Sometimes to-
ward the last of the WoO-ev, when two
or three different ones wish to borrow,
the rates offered are often as high
as seventy-five per cent, and in one in
stance that | know of, just before the
Chinese New Year, 100 per cent. was
bid on a 50 Woo-ey. AS there were
but three members that had not Dor
rowed, the hard-up Celestial had only to
Sometimes the WOO-ev is as low as fifty
cents share, and | have known of
Woo-evs as high as $50 share. Those
who 90 into a Woo-ey as an investment
and do not borrow themselves generally
get a large interest for their money.
The Chinese, although they do not
use gold as a token for money silver
being their highest standard for metal
currency, use it Target " for ornaments
and jewelry The women deck their
hair with pins, combs and pendants
made of fine gold, and wear rings, brace
lets and anklets, if they can afford it,
while the men content themselves with
rings and buttons made of gold
1t is common sight in San Francisco
to see well-to-do Chinese with double
row of gold dollars on either side of his
coat, running the full length, that are
used as buttons.
Silver for ornaments and jewelry is
largely utilized when circumstances will
not allow using the more costly metal
For gems or stones the jade-stOne is the
favorite There is not only an intrinsic
but a superstitiOus value attached to
this stone. The favOrite ornament for
both male and female is jade-stOne
bracelet made solid like ring. The value
of single bracelet varies according to
the qualitv-from $50 up to as high as
$3.50 is paid. The jade is semi-trans-
parent stone nearly as hard as a dla-
mond and of milky or smoky white color
notified with green and blue. When cir
cumstances admit a jade-stone bracelet IS
placed upon the wrist of child and
allowed to remain there. As the child
grows up the hand naturally increases in
size, so that in the course Of time it is i'm
possible to remove the bracelet without
breaking it.
The superstitious value of the jade
stone is that the owner of good stone
will never suffer with hunger. The su-
perstition is probably true, for one would
not naturally suffer much from hunger be-
fore he sold the stone, which would place
him in a pecuniary position to buy food:
When the money received by the sale OF
the stone is gone, the belief holds good,
even though the believer might starve
to death, because having sold his stone
he no longer is the possessor OF charm
to prevent him from suffering with
hunger.
Next to the jade-stone, the diamond is
the favorite-the Chinese are good judges
of diamonds, and often buy them when
in foreign countries as safe investment
for their money. Nearly all the Chinese
in Cuba go there to work on hve OF
seven-year contract, receiving only a
small amount of the pay until the con-
tract expires, when they get the larger
| portion of the money they have earned
in one sum.
1t is common occurrence Tor a chi
nese from Cuba, who has his wealth IN
the form of diamonds, when about to
pass the custom house inspectors in San
Francisco to place his diamonds in his
mouth, and if he finds the search is too
rigid he can easily swallow them-and
as soon as he gets ashore an emetlc Will
shortly bring the diamonds to light. AS ne
is naturally close buyer and brings the
stones into this country without payment
of duty, he has little if any difficulty in
| disposing of them at price in advance
of what he paid.
The highest office in the gift of the
Emperor is within the reach of Chinese
of low birth provided that he succeeds as
a scholar. Although, as rule, boys Sc
lected for students are taken from tam
lilies of the better class, yet all Chinese
venerate learning, so much so that IN
San Francisco the Six Companies employ
Chinese whose duty is to walk over the
streets in the Chinese quarter and pick
up every scrap or piece of paper he
can find that has Chinese writing on
it; for, as they express it, any one who
has ability sufficient to write IN Chinese
should not have the work of his brain
cast in the street, where the winds may
blow it about and the dirt detile it.
So a man is employed to gather up
these scraps of paper, which are after
ward sorted over The pieces that are